Abstract

The article concerns the Russian policy in the Balkans on the eve of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877–1878 and focuses on the activity of the Russian ambassador to Constantinople, Count N.P. Ignatiev, and his associate, General R.A. Fadeev, that was carried out outside the scope of the official policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A few years before the armed conflict, they proposed a plan for the destruction of Turkey in the result of a combined attack from the south (by the forces of the khedive of Egypt, Isma’il Pasha), from the Balkan Peninsula (by the uprising of Slavic peoples instigated by Russia) and, finally, by direct military operations of the Russian army from the Caucasus. It was assumed that such an attack would lead to Egypt’s independence, restoring the Slavic states in the Balkans, and establishing Russian control over the Black Sea straits and Constantinople. This adventurous project was not entirely viable, since it neglected the international context. However, some its elements were implemented during the uprising in the Balkans that started in 1875, when Russia helped the Bulgarians and Serbs, and, finally, certain ideas of the Ignatiev–Fadeev plan were reflected in the content of the preliminary San Stefano Peace Treaty. But the most important was that Saint Petersburg simultaneously followed two different directions in its policy – the Ignatiev–Fadeev plan, worked out to resolve the Balkan problems between Russia and Turkey, “one on one”, and the official policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headed by Prince A.M. Gorchakov, who relied on the decisions of the “concert of powers”. This ambivalence was evident at various levels, including Alexander II’s decisions. It predetermined the considerable differences between the terms of the San Stefano Peace Treaty and the 1878 Berlin Congress. Such a split of Saint Petersburg’s foreign policy resulted in a decline in the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the global stage. This decline further evolved and affected the situation in the 1880–1890s.